


lights out in babylon

by ProfessorESP



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: @ this fic: get tf out of my drafts, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Canon Compliant, Gen, arrives at the borderlands fandom 15 minutes late with divine starbucks, dtmc (down to make cults)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 20:45:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11974683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfessorESP/pseuds/ProfessorESP
Summary: Pandora is a breeding ground for gods. Everyone needs to believe that someone, somewhere has the power to lessen their suffering and bring order to their lives. Maya may not believe in gods anymore, but she does believe in Lilith. That might be enough.





	lights out in babylon

**Author's Note:**

> This started out like [checks calender] two years ago as what was SUPPOSED to be a Jack/Rhys "human sacrifice, but in like, a sexy way" fic, which turned into something way more complicated that ended up never evolving past this. Thank god.
> 
> For more weird divinity like this, check me out at professorsparklepants.tumblr.com/dtmc, where I am NOT starting a cult. Unlike most Pandorans.

When Maya was a child, the monks of the Order told her that her siren powers were a divine gift. They said that their god had created the sirens as his handmaidens, and when he came to bury humanity in endless rains, the sirens would stand by his side and call down the lightning.

When Maya was a child, she believed them.

She’s not a child any longer.

* * *

 Frostburn Canyon was a fucking maze. Every time they thought they’d found the path to the Firehawk’s lair, they ended up turned around and back at the same damned bandit camp they’d started with.

After the third time, Gaige threw a fit.

“We’ve been walking for sooooo long,” she whined. “My feet hurt, and it’s too cold to catch my breath!”

“You can’t catch your breath because you don’t do enough cardio,” Axton said.

“Oh fuck off!”

“Hey, I’m not above getting Krieg to chase you around Sanctuary in the name of training.”

“You wouldn’t dare—”

“I think a break is a great idea!” Maya said, raising her voice over Axton and Gaige. “We need to get our thoughts together and plot out a route. Zer0, Axton? A little help?”

Gaige whooped and high fived Krieg. “Alright, who wants to arm wrestle with Deathtrap?”

“Stick your face in the meat grinder!”

Maya knelt down and started plotting out a rough map of the canyon in the snow.

“So, these are the coordinates we have for the Firehawk’s lair. The fast travel is over here, and we’re here—”

“I thought we were over here,” Axton said, pointing to a spot further east.

“No, that’s where we ran into that bandit-war boy shootout.”

“Two clans alike in weaponry, on Pandora where we lay our scene,” Zer0 quoted. When Maya and Axton looked up at them, they shrugged. “The master poet must learn their art studying masters.”

“Alright, sure Keats,” Axton said. “Come study Coronelli, get over here and help us mark out the bandit camps.”

Zer0 marked out the bandit camps with their sword. The three of them ignored the chorus of bending metal, shrieking mechanics, and screaming war boys that was performing behind them. Maya rocked back onto her heels, studying the map with a frown.

“I feel like we’re missing something,” she said. “Camps, Firehawk, fast travel… what else?”

“What about the bodies?” Salvador asked, right next to Maya’s ear. She fell forward in surprise, but he caught her by the shoulder before she hit the map.

“Don’t scare me like that!” she said, punching him in the arm. “Fucking hell, I thought Zer0 was the ninja here.”

Salvador shrugged. “Abuela was a light sleeper.” He sat down in the snow next to Maya and started marking the map. “So I think there was a body here, and another one by this camp—”

“What bodies?” Axton asked.

“The bodies mounted on the boards. The war boys with the single arm pinned up under the eye drawn in blood. Por su dios.”

“Oh yeah, the sacrifices,” Maya said, nodding absently. “Nice catch.”

“Hold the call,” Axton said, shaking his head and motioning for a time out. “What sacrifices? I thought those were territory markers. Y’know, like, ‘war boys keep out, bandits only’ or something.”

Maya and Salvador looked at Axton blankly.

“It’s… literally painted with religious imagery,” she said. “The hawk’s eye? The ritual pose?”

“Si. One man nailed to a board is a threat. Multiples are an offering.”

“So they’re you think they’re human sacrifices? Why? What’s the point?”

Salvador shrugged, still marking out the spots on their map. “Who knows. These banditos out in the badlands are crazy religious. Every group has a god or an ancestor to thank for their kills. The ones back by Ovejas used to pray to Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.”

“You think they’re worshipping the Firehawk?” Axton asked, incredulous.

“Uh… duh?” Maya said.

“Without hope, faith will stand alone. Gods redeem,” Zer0 added.

“But the Firehawk kills them!”

Salvador stared at Axton sadly, his eyes full of something that wasn’t quite pity. “This is Pandora, amigo. Everything kills you. Why should the gods be any different?”

* * *

 Lilith grabbed Maya’s shoulder as the Vault Hunters poured out of the Crimson Raider’s meeting room. “Hey, wait up a sec.”

“Yeah?” Maya asked. Lilith peered past her, checking that the last of the group has filed down the stairs.

“Listen… I might have a small problem. One I don’t really need Roland finding out about.”

“I’m not killing Tannis for you.”

“No, no, nothing like that. It’s just that—ugh.” Lilith raked a hand across her face. “You’ve been out in the cavern. You know what the war boys can be like.”

“Is this about the sacrifices?”

Lilith grinned ruefully. “Yeah. Some of the local war boys started a cult for ‘the mother Firehawk’ or whatever. They’re probably harmless, I just want to make sure they don’t pose a threat to Sanctuary at all.”

“You just want me to case them out?” Maya asked

“Exactly,” Lilith said, looking relieved.

“I'm surprised you don't mind. Not a lot of people would be down for being worshipped by feral weirdos.”

Lilith shrugged, smiling softly. “I can’t say I understand it, but it’s… flattering. As long as they’re not causing any harm, I don’t see any reason to stop them.”

Maya blinked in surprise. She narrowed her eyes, searching for a measure of understanding in Lilith’s face, but there was nothing but concerned detachment, as if she was asking Maya to solve someone else’s problem instead of her own.

“Oh shit,” Maya swore. “You don’t know.”

“Don’t know what?” Lilith frowned.

“You’ve been the Firehawk for months, how can you not know?” Maya asked, absently. Her mind was reeling. Axton being ignorant was one thing, but Lilith had lived on Pandora for years now. Surely she would have learned about the local religion somehow, except…

Except all Lilith’s time was split between fighting Hyperion and fighting bandits. All the people at Sanctuary, all the people Lilith would’ve been allied with, were _normal._ They wouldn’t have the same desperate zealotry as the feral groups living out in the badlands.

“Maya, what the hell are you talking about?” Lilith demanded.

Maya didn’t even know where to _start_ with this conversation. “Worshippers, religion in general on Pandora, it’s… weird.” Weird was a safe word. “When it revolves around a real person, instead of an idea, their intended god tends to get… extra powers. Abilities. More charisma. It’s different for everyone.”

“Their intended gods,” Lilith repeated. “What, like they’re running around giving cool rocks the ability to glow every third midnight or something?”

“Sometimes. Most of the time it’s real people. Living people. In this case, you.”

Lilith shook her head. “No. No, no, no. I am _not_ a goddess. I’m a siren. It’s an honest mistake, I don’t blame them, but they do _not_ need to be worshipping me.”

Maya sighed and dragged a hand down her face. “That’s not how it works, you know. They don’t worship you because you’re a goddess; you’re a goddess because they worship you.”

“That sounds like bullshit.”

“Oh it definitely is, but it’s bullshit that works. The monks tried it on me for years. It’s surprisingly easy to get people to worship a siren; all you need to do is show off the tattoos and come up with a few tall tales about divine right and avatars of power. It doesn’t really work if your object of worship is a seven year old who’d rather be running through the catacombs than sitting on a throne being a demure child god, so they switched to making me a living weapon pretty soon after that. But the theological lessons covered the concept well.”

“I am _not_ a goddess.”

"Listen. How long ago did your siren powers start getting an eridium boost?”

“Six, seven months. Why?”

“Is that around the same time you started being the Firehawk?”

“I—” Lilith narrowed her eyes. “No. I am not developing godly powers, or divine smiting hands, or whatever. I got a power boost because my power and eridium are both tied to the vault.”

“Except that my powers aren’t affected by eridium at all.” Maya dug a hunk of eridium out of her pocket and held it in her open hand. “I’ve been picking this stuff up ever since I landed on Pandora, and it’s never done shit for me. I didn’t even know you could use them for anything but money or offerings until I met you.”

Lilith blinked. “Offerings?”

“Yep. It's the default offering for gods on Pandora, corporeal or otherwise. Not sure why, but from what I’ve seen, whatever cult has the most of it is the defacto power in the region. Handsome Jack has an over elaborate trade and tribute system centered around the stuff. He’s got something like fifty towns sending eridium from their mines as a tithe.”

“And you think it has something to do with divine power?” Lilith shook her head and started pacing. “This is ridiculous. It’s just my siren powers. There’s no cults or living gods involved.”

“If that’s what you want to think,” Maya said. She pushed herself off the wall and headed for the door. “I’ll check in on that cult of yours for you. The rest of the crew wanted an afternoon off anyway.”

Lilith sighed, shoulders sagging. “Thanks, kiddo.”

Maya shrugged again, patting the door frame before heading back down the stairs again. Outside the raiders headquarters, she leaned against the wall and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hand. Lilith was easy to look at, maybe too easy, but it strained her eyes. It was like staring at an optical illusion for too long.

 _Siren powers my ass,_ Maya thought. She spared a glance up at the balcony before heading to the fast travel station. She had an inquisition to start.

* * *

_“That’s it,”_ Lilith said. _“I’m coming in.”_

“Wait!” Maya shouted. The cult members all turned to look at her. Lilith was silent on the echo.

Maya blanked for a split second, staring at Clayton. She could kill them. She could kill all of them, and go on her merry way, and have a drink at Moxxi’s and laugh about the audacity of believing there was a higher power that fucking _cares._ But Handsome Jack was still out there gorging himself on eridium and growing in power and worshipers while Sanctuary was still struggling to keep him out of their territory. If they ended up having to go toe to toe with a god, they were going to need an equal power on their side. Lilith may not believe, but Maya didn’t either. Giving up her faith didn’t make the gods stop being real.     

 _We can use this,_ she thought. _I just need to give them something that Lilith will approve._

Maya stood up straight, sweeping her gaze over all the war boys surrounding the sacrificial pit. _Righteous anger, righteous words,_ she thought. _That’s how the Impending Storm did it._

“I am not a novice. I am an emissary of our mother the Firehawk, chosen as a messenger to her children in Frostburn Canyon. And she is not pleased.”

The camp erupted into out roar. The war boys around the pit began to scream, cries of anger mixing with anguish and fear.

“You are no servant of the goddess!” Clayton yelled. “You have no part in her worship and no place among her children!”

“I have done nothing but act in her interest! I have proven my worth! I carry her will! Watch, she will send a sign to mark me as her servant.”

 _“One miracle, coming up,”_ Lilith said. There was a flash of light just outside of Maya’s vision. She felt a pair of hands press flat against her shoulder blades just before the air behind her back started to burn. She didn’t dare look behind her. She might get burned, or worse, ruin the effect.

“The wings of the Firehawk!” one of the war boys shouted. They all fell to their knees, even Clayton, prostrated in front of Maya.

“For the record,” Lilith murmured into Maya’s ear, “I don’t appreciate being put on speed dial.”

“Yeah? The next time I go to investigate one of your cults, I’ll be sure to have you appoint me as high priestess before the trip,” Maya muttered back.

“Great prophet,” Clayton whimpered, “tell us the Firehawk’s will.”

“Did you just promote yourself?” Lilith whispered.

“Shut up!” Maya hissed. She raised her voice so all the Incinerators could hear her. “Our mother Firehawk is angry with you. Sanctuary is her seat of power, and you have stolen her people for slaughter and done this evil in her name. The citizens of Sanctuary are to remain untouched, to serve the goddess in their own way.”

“Nice touch. Add something in there about the Raiders.”

“And the Mother has seen the Crimson Raiders near your lands, but they are also untouchable, as their leader is her chosen consort, and through him they will practice her will.”

“Well, uh, consort might be a little presumptuous—”

“I am literally writing the scripture for your religion,” Maya hissed. “Your relationship status is not my main concern right now.”

“Jeez, alright. Sorry to bother you, your worship.”

“But the bandits of the borderlands and followers of Hyperion are free reign,” Maya continued, pointedly ignoring the invisible arm Lilith flung over her shoulder. “They have made themselves enemies of the Firehawk, and those will not repent to her name or the name of her people is an enemy of her children.”

“We hear and obey!” Clayton yelled. The war boys joined him in cheering. The Sanctuary citizens joined them halfheartedly. The heat behind Maya’s back faded as Lilith’s wings vanished. The miracle was over.

“Nice job, champ,” Lilith said. “You didn’t strike me as the non-violent type, but you did good.”

“Every advantage counts. We just needed to point them in the right direction.”

Lilith slapped Maya on the back. “Well, I’m heading back. Get the hostages out of sight and call me up, I’ll teleport you all back.”

“Can do, mother Firehawk.” Maya didn’t need to see Lilith to know she was rolling her eyes. She pat Maya’s back twice, then teleported away in a flash of light.

 _Just a glare in the snow,_ Maya thought, watching the war boys lower the Sanctuary residents’ cages to the ground. _Nothing deceptive to see here, move along._

* * *

Salvador and Maya stood back with Roland, away from the colossal statue of Marcus, attention split between the _colossal statue of Marcus_ (because honestly, what the fuck) and the of Vault Hunters arguing at its feet. Gaige was trying to convince Krieg to jump into the sacrificial pit, even as Axton attempted to pull both of them away, swearing loudly. Zer0 watched from the side, clearly amused and ready to throw the switch as soon as someone was knocked in.

“Is it just me or this shit getting more and more common?” Maya asked.

“So it seems,” Salvador said. He gestured up at the statue. “Though I assume you mean our pot-bellied friend, since they’re always screaming.”

“Want to clue a guy into the conversation?” Roland asked, raising an eyebrow. Salvador looked at Maya and she shrugged.

“Pandora is a desolate wasteland full of people hoping for peace and stability. These kinds of places are like breeding grounds for religion, both stupid and profound. I guess everyone needs to believe that someone, somewhere has the power to lessen their suffering and bring order to their lives,” she said.

“And they picked _Marcus,”_ Roland said disbelievingly.

“He sells good gear,” Salvador said. “Be glad the banditos are dead, or we might see more of these.”

“No accounting for taste,” she sighed. “I mean, look at the Children of the Firehawk.”

“The what?” Roland asked, right as Gaige and Krieg pushed Axton into the pit. All three of them screamed: fear, joy, rageful joy. Axton came barreling out of the nearest respawn and added some vanilla rage in.

“Madre de dios,” Salvador muttered, charging towards them. “I thought Axton was the babysitter here! Ándale, ándale! Get a move on!”

“Maya, check out my sweet new baby!” Gaige said, hefting up the gun she’d just murdered Axton in cold blood for.

Maya pat her on the head. “Maybe if you’re a good girl and pray to Marcus every night he’ll get you an even better one.”

She could still hear her laughing as the fast travel started up.

* * *

“One more thing,” Roland said as he was wrapping up the debrief. “What’s this thing I’ve heard about the Children of the Firehawk?”

Axton snatched his gun off the table. “I don’t know anything, ask Zer0, they’re the renaissance man.”

“Pandoran locals understand Pandoran rites,” Zer0 said, “and Pandoran gods.”

“Yo no comprendo,” Salvador said, holding his hands up in defence. “You’re better asking Maya, she grew up en una abadía, she knows more of the theory than I do.”

“I hate you all,” Maya said.

Roland eyed the other vault hunters as they left the room, Axton holding up the rear. He offered a quick salute and a rueful smile before booking it down the stairs. Roland shifted his attention back to Maya and raised an eyebrow. She took a deep breath and sighed it back out.

“Long story short,” Maya began, “is that your girlfriend is a war goddess, I’ve been roped into being her high priestess, and there’s now a small cult of war boys out murdering other bandits in the name of the Firehawk.”

“What,” Roland said flatly.

She sighed and boosted herself up onto the holo table. “You and Lilith have been spending time with normal people so you may not have noticed, but that shit the bandits pulled with Marcus is pretty typical. Pandorans are _desperate_ for something to believe in. Lilith got picked up because she’s dangerous. Sirens are easy to fear and easy to deify. We can kill people with little to no effort, possess powers that normal humans don’t understand, and are apparently chosen before birth by some random power beyond mortal comprehension. When people see what they don’t understand, they fear it, and when they fear something they try to destroy it, and when they can’t destroy it they try to appease it. Hence, the worship.”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Roland said, waving his arms. “This—this is absurd. Lilith is _not_ a goddess. That’s not even possible.”

“Is so,” Maya said. “Where do you think her power boost came from?”

“Eridium and the opening of the vault. She’s said so herself. It’s just a weird siren thing.”

Maya looked at him pityingly. “Roland, I’m a siren. I can’t absorb eridium at all, and the opening of the vault didn’t do anything to my powers. The reason Lilith can use eridium as a power boost is because it’s an offering. That’s why people leave it in front of their personal shrines. It’s why Jack collects so much of it. It boosts divine power, not siren powers.”

She slid off the table and picked her gun up off the floor. “They don’t believe in her because she’s a god. She’s a god because they believe in her.”

“You don’t really believe this, do you?” Roland said, pacing towards the door

“I don’t have to believe in the gods to know they’re real,” she called back, and booked it down the stairs before he had a chance to lecture her. This was _Lilith’s_ problem.

* * *

After Jack started firing on Sanctuary, they scattered. Gaige and Axton dashed across the city at Scooter’s command, hooking up systems and making last minute tweaks. Zer0 and Salvador herded civilians out of burning buildings and dented streets, leading them down underground. Maya wasn’t sure where Krieg went, but the lack of panicked screaming—more panicked screaming, that is—on the echonet was reassurance that he wasn’t making the situation any worse.

Maya entered the central square just in time to watch Lilith disappear, a huge monolith of a structure rising out from where she’d been standing before.

 _“Get that Eridium to Lilith!”_ Roland ordered. Another moonshot hit, sending chunks of concrete raining down into the street. Maya ran.

 _“Everything you Vault Hunters have ever done,”_ Jack crooned, _“it’s all part of my plan. You can’t stop divine intervention.”_

“Fucking watch me,” Maya muttered, and silenced his channel.

She hesitated just long enough inside to see Roland pinned before turning back to the safe and grabbing the eridium. She considered echoing Krieg, seeing if he could focus on her long enough to understand Roland needed help, but that would take time she didn’t have.

Lilith was waiting on the other side of the square, bracing herself against the… whatever it was. Her tattoos were glowing again, so bright they might as well be white, and her phasewalk energy orbited her arms, waiting to be let loose.

“This is a little more than my usual dose,” Lilith said, grabbing all four hunks of eridium out of Maya’s hands. “You might want to hold onto something.”

She absorbed the eridium, the glare of her tattoos spreading across her skin until her entire body looked like it was made of nothing but bright white light. The energy she’d been holding back rocketed upwards, infusing the entire structure with a violet aura.

“It’s not enough!” Lilith yelled. “I need more!”

 _"We don’t have anymore!”_ Roland yelled back.

“No,” said Maya. “But you do have me.”

She threw her gun aside and pressed her palms to Lilith’s shoulders, calling her power forward. She breathed, in and out, the way the monks had taught her, and called her phaselock up. It wanted to fly free, and usually she would let it, just pointing it in one direction and letting it wreak havoc. This time she pushed it down instead of out, tightened it and compressed it until it wasn’t a black hole, or a portal, or a doorway, or anything at all. It was energy, pure and unbound. She pushed it forward, feeling Lilith’s powers consume it and fold it into the roar of energy Lilith was made of.

“I need more,” Lilith gasped. Her glow was bright enough that Maya was seeing spots, gold and red and purple drifting across her eyelids no matter how tightly she squeezed them shut.

Maya pushed harder, drawing everything she could out of herself. All the power she’d locked away, all the power the monks had lusted after, all the power the people of Athenas had feared; she sent it all, and Lilith took it. Lilith took and took and took, until Maya felt as if there was nothing left, but then—

It was like leaving atmosphere and seeing the stars for the first time. Lilith was an ocean of power. On the surface, the current churned with the heat of fire and desert winds, with the taste of blood and burnt flesh, with the smell of bones and decay. Further underneath was the land: the black rocks of the volcanic plains, the dark ice of the glaciers, the deep violet of the eridium blight. Maya sank further down, under the smooth rock rivers, the crisp arctic air, the dry canyon beds. Down and down she sank, until she could smell it, as clear as the coming rain.

It was the promise of treasure, the reward reaped after a hard day’s work. It was the name spoken over a new child, given in memory of a family member who’d passed. It was the chaste touch of hands between two lovers separated by time and circumstance.

It was hope.

* * *

 Watching from afar as Lilith carries the city in her hands, still feeling divine power burning through her fingertips—

That— _that_ —is what makes Maya believe.


End file.
